Users can kill the task bar icon by selecting "Customize" from the task bar's notification area -- the option is under the small up-arrow at the left of the section -- then choosing "GWX" and setting it to "Hide icon and notifications."
Alternately, users can remove the Get Windows 10 app and its marketing push by uninstalling KB3035583 from the Windows Update pane.

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I use Windows 7 and found the icon on my laptop this morning. I put the icon on "Hide icon and notifications" for now. I am TIRED of this constant harassment. My husband cannot adapt well to changes on his computer; he only uses it to read mail (outlook) and surf (IE 10). As they have prepped his computer for the update, the computer performance, especially the browser performance has almost died. He has gotten so frustrated he dreads just checking the mail. I get it working better and, in a few days, it is too slow to enjoy. (I have high speed Comcast.)

I have found myself (for me not my husband) reading up on Ubuntu and checking out the few remaining Macs on the market lately. I remember back in the good ole days before I became a bureaucrat (actually worked for a living) my favorite operating system was the Unix on my Silicon Graphics and my favorite desktop was my Apple with, I think, System 7. But I can't figure out if non Windows operating systems are really more secure or merely less attractive for hackers.

So, I plan to keep my Windows 7 until reports tell me that their performance was better with 10; the new browser is enhanced and not dehanced; the transition is easy for old men who just want to have fun and kill time; old investments in products like Office 2007 and 2010 work without using clouds or virtualization; classic views are available that almost make it seem nothing has changed; etc., etc., etc.

But, I expect with time MS prep actions will make Windows 7 and IE almost unusable so you beg for a solution to your computer's poor intractable performance problems.

If you liked SGI workstations you'll probably be pretty happy with a Mac mini. You'll be pretty familiar with osx's version of Unix

Back in February, Business Insider's Steve Kovach declared that after years of being an Apple kind of guy, he was ready to love Microsoft Windows again.
...
In my own tests with Windows 10, there's a lot to like — I'm still not sure if it'll be enough to get me to switch from my own Mac and go Windows full-time, but there's a lot to like in Windows 10, and the heat is on.

Here are some of the coolest features you should be looking forward to in Windows 10.

__________________"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu

I almost got suckered into clicking that. It implied that that was the only way to get Win 10 for free, which is not the case. I'll upgrade when the free offer is about to expire next year.

I understand why Microsoft is being aggressive about this: Windows 8 got a bad rap, and millions of people (like me) stayed away although they would have been happy with it.

When I finally upgraded (from XP), I found that I could avoid the stupid Metro interface entirely, and that there were a bunch of nice new features. With Classic Shell installed, the interface is like XP's, but many things work better.

__________________"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu

There are a lot of generic references to Win8 here. Maybe everyone realizes it, but Win8.1 is markedly better than Win8 IME.

You do NOT have to use the "metro" interface or metro apps, you can use the classic desktop UI (similar to the Win7 UI and earlier OS's) and even set your PC to startup on the desktop UI so you never even have to see the metro/live tile UI. I switch back and forth, metro is good for some things, the old familiar desktop is better for some - toggling back and forth is one click.

I am no PC/Microsoft fanboy by any means, I use my iPad and iPhone for more than my PC these days. While I could see why many people resisted going from Win7 to Win8 (also had a classic desktop, but crippled and harder to access), I don't see the downside of Win8.1 vs Win7. So I went with Win8.1 to be more current and extend support. YMMV

Looking forward to Win10. After their horrible Win8 rollout experience, it would be hard to believe they wouldn't get Win10 right...we'll see. And of course:

Quote:

Windows 3.1x (1992) - Good

Windows 95 (1995) - Mixed bag, at the beginning it sucked

Windows 98 (1998) - Good

Windows ME (2000) - Sucked (hard)

Windows XP (2001) - Good

Windows Vista (2006) - Sucked although not as hard as ME

Windows 7 (2009) - Good

Windows 8 (2012) - Sucked mostly for being new & different

Windows 10 (2015) -

So, it seems fairly obvious that every other release of Windows has in fact sucked, but why has it sucked?

My laptop is "brain central" for the iGadgets and stuff, the main storage for music, photos, and email, and it's also the brain of my home studio. Upgrading early would mean I'd be waiting for all the peripheral companies to update drivers, which, from XP to Vista, took as long as two years...

I will try to keep a Vista desktop alive until the OS hits end-of-life which I think is 2017. I'll have moved to an Apple desktop completely by then. For laptop-like things I'm already happy with Chromebooks.

I don't think it matters if Classic Shell works with Windows 10. That is, I don't think I will need it with Windows 10 due to the changes Windows has made.

From what I read, the preview version of Win 10 blocked Classic Shell, but a quick work around was to rename the Classic Shell installer program. From Classic Shell's website, they are working on a version which runs on Win 10. Plus, if one does go to Win 10 and want the look of the old, there are others too beside Classic Shell...maybe not a freebie, but not too much.

My knee jerk reaction is, to run from Win 10 and not touch that with a 10 foot pole. I like my Win 7. But on second thought, by 2020 (not that far away!), when security updates stop for Win 7, the writing is on the wall and MS will kill Win 7 like it did for XP.

This expresses my mixed feelings, too. But I am leaning toward getting the upgrade for the same reason Easysurfer wrote. As other poster(s) mentioned, I would wait toward the end of the free upgrade period so MS can get some bugs out, as I do not desire to be a MS guinea pig. I don't want to be stuck with Win 7 when MS stops supporting it in a few years and have to pay for an upgrade.

__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.

Guess 'latest and greatest' is about as close a description as I can find that fits, although I'll wait a bit, no hurry. Got several PC's on a network, and trying to make them all play nice with each other is generally easier if their OS is similar lineage and vintage. I was using UBUNTU on a standlaone server, but got tired of dealing with the peculiarities of that. Linux's cryptic system commands reminded a lot of MS DOS back the day, and I am really not that much into reliving the past. My favorite OS ever was Windows 2000 Professional. It ran rock solid and never gave me any grief at all, but when the sun set on support it was time to move on.

I understand why Microsoft is being aggressive about this: Windows 8 got a bad rap, and millions of people (like me) stayed away although they would have been happy with it.

It's more than that. Microsoft, despite all the bashing they've endured over the years, has been exceedingly customer-friendly incurring the high cost of maintaining compatibility and suitability of myriad versions and releases. The move to Windows 10 is an acknowledgement by Microsoft that the old way of doing things is over: Google's Android OS has made clear the path forward and Microsoft (and eventually Apple) will have to acknowledge that and adopt that model, or face extinction.

I think it'll come as a big surprise to people that we're only 31 months away from when Microsoft will end mainstream support for Windows 8.1. After that point in time, sticking with Windows 8.1 will be a pretty significant risk for consumers. That rapid product life cycle is the hallmark of Google's product model, and now will become the industry standard.

I think bUU has it right, A business decision, looking down the line three to five years, to avoid the expense of supporting old systems. A new income stream from innovative upgrades, and a big boost for the desktop laptop industry capitalizing on the pent up demand. Microsoft and Windows isn't going away.

Many years in the development should ease the rollout glitches. Lots of big money sitting in the bank, waiting for the company to regain the profit and glory of the halcyon years.

Reminds me of this... "My momma had an ugly kid... she didn't have a stupid kid."

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